Chapter 10: Black roses

Selene had watched the ruins that hid themselves behind the darkening sky, she watched as she saw 7 start to dash off with her spear, before she disappeared completely she turned towards Selene.

" Would you like to come with me?" Selene nodded and left Chandra with 13, 14, 3,4 and 9. They watched as Selene and 7 became shilouttes clouded by the darkness, the moon had fully shown relieving a bit of the foundations that surrounded them by bit by bit the dark sky had took over. The city was quiet, more quiet then usual excluding the eerie sound of metal clanging together endlessly, almost like lullaby haunting but soothing Chandra pulled her daughters close together as the sound echoed off the lifeless walls.

The minutes watching the spot where the two disappeared was exhausting on their feet as well as time, Chandra could feel her eye lids dropping as the moon served a reminder of what time it was. Even with her regrets Chandra felt her eye lids drop over her eyes. The darkness was soothing as she heard the sound drowning out of her conscious mind, as soon as she fell into the abyss of her mind something pulled her back into reality. Chandra's head snapped up as she saw 14 giving uneasy stares towards the back of them, her eyes fixated on the library's bookshelves that crumbled, Chandra watched as 14 suddenly let go of her arm and put her hands up as if ready to fight. 13 watched her sisters reaction and closed her eyes searching her visions.

" What is it 14?" Chandra asked quietly. 14 closed her eyes and whispered solemnly,

" She's back," At that moment a huge explosion sent rubble and books flying while smoke filled the room as if explosives hit. In the smoke Chandra could make out a shiloutte of a person, when the smoke full out of the place, Chandra saw the blond haired girl she met earlier. The button eyed girl had wore a black sweater, a purple tank top with a black mini skirt and a black choker. She smiled evilly as she saw the others, she cracked her hands together and choked out a laugh.

" Your kidding? You guys again? Your too weak, well except for that other blond but shes gone" Chandra watched as Babydoll came running towards 14 who was still in her fighting stance. Babydoll collided with her and they ran full tilt into a brick wall, Chandra watched as the building crumbled down and they stood up at the same time. Babydoll was completely unharmed while 14 had blood streaming from down her face, her eyes were dropping but filled with tears from the pain she endorsed. Chandra saw as 13 came closer towards her sister but was knocked down by Babydoll's punch, 13 managed to stand up but was knocked down by Babydoll again this time 13 had blood running of her scraped elbows. Chandra stood and watched with lifeless, tired eyes as she saw her daughters getting pummeled over and over again, the blood that ran off of them made her feel more enraged until Chandra felt herself being drowned by her anger. She loomed closer to Babydoll silently, Chandra came to her back and watched as Babydoll turned around to face her, Chandra slapped her hardly sending her flying into an old wooden building, it fell down in a puff of smoke as Babydoll steadied her balance and stared into the eyes of the blond girl who dared push her. Her eyes she noticed were different, last time they were a kind, baby blue but now they turned grey just like that other girls she had fought the other time. Babydoll growled quietly to herself as she felt trickles of blood dance down her neck.

Chandra stood her guard and put her arm across her chest, the Atlas symbol started to glow green as Chandra stared towards her new found enemy.

" You wanna dance? Let's dance" Chandra started to dart towards Babydoll.

" You find anything yet?" Selene asked 7 as they were scouring the old fabrication machine liar, the place was completely ruined as they saw the old gramophone in which 3 and 4 played their record after the defeat of the machine. 7 shook her head without a sound as they kept searching for the sound. Selene cocked her head to the side as she heard a huge crashing sound coming from the city, she felt a heart in her mouth as that was were her sister was located. Selene balled her fists into balls as she realised that it was a plan to get them away from each other, she also noticed the sound stopped at the same time that the crash that descended.

" We should head back" Selene informed 7, 7 nodded as well and they stared out towards the city, Selene had an uneasy feeling as they walked the old forest outskirts back to the library, she never told 7 but she had the feeling of being watched, the humblest shadows seemed to hold the suspension of something lurking in them. Selene kept walking with 7 until 7 turned around swiftly and held out her spear.

" What's wrong 7?" Selene asked quickly, 7 glared as she pointed towards an old hut that was made from shingles and pieces of wood. Underneath the tarp was the fabrication machine, his red eye was fixated on the girls as he squealed in anger, he slowly stood up and walked towards them, Selene noticed he only had 3 legs now and was much slower, also his body was much smaller as parts of it had been blown off by their canon attack. Selene put her arms in a fighting stance as she watched the machine approaching.

" It wasn't a plan just us finding one for him" 7 muttered under her breath as the machine was in arms reach now. Selene nodded as the machine wanting to attack, couldn't do anything in his conditian at all. The look in his red eye however had made Selene remember something that was on the verge of being forgotten in her memory, even though in her attempts the eye rang something in her mind but whatever it was was guarded carefully by something. Just then one hand with a saw on it came and struck Selene in the leg, a fresh cut scar appeared on her leg as the bleeding began. 7 scowled as she took her spear and started to hit the machine in various areas, with one breath 7 yelled.

" Hurry back! Find 9 and your sisters" Selene nodded quickly as she ran towards the city, her leg was bleeding badly but despite her pain she had found her self running as fast as she usually did, in her pain a couple of memories had painted pictures then formed a film for her, Selene closed her eyes as the memories she had were of her mother, the one thing she loathed the most. Her mother was in her memories sitting on a swing in the rose garden in their backyard, she seemed lost in thought as she swung slowly, Selene remembered it was the time when she was 3 and before she was sentenced to the closet, she watched her mother peacefully as she swang. Then one after another more memories of her mother came to her, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes Selene reopened them as the repulsive picture of the machine's eye was there. Selene's mouth dropped open as she found herself at the outskirts of the city, her mind flashed many ideas of what she thought about staring at the machine's eye, one word escaped her mouth as her eyes flashed with terror and curiosity.

" Mother..."

Selene looked up in time to see a cloud of smoke and a huge loud crash from inside the city streets.

" Had enough yet?" Chandra asked as she was perched up on a small telephone poll stub, her mint dress was ripped from the knees up, it was also covered with spots of blood. Her hair ribbons were falling out of her hair showing her full length of hair. Her eyes were painted with anger as she stared at Babydoll who was laying on her side beside an old bricked building. Chandra shot a quick glance at her hand that was transformed into the weapon, the symbol was bright, neon green. Chandra waited for Babydoll to stand up again only she never did, 14 was taking a chance as she put her hand underneath Babydoll's neck. 14 stared up at her mother.

" No she's gone, I can feel no power going through her she's dead" 14 said as she returned to her spot beside 13. Chandra hopped down off the stub and stood beside 3 who was beside his daughters. She put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, 3 got a look at Chandra's face and was surprised. Chandra was crying, slowly 3 rubbed her arm and held her close to him.

" I was so scared 3, but I had to do something" Chandra whispered. 3 smiled and kissed the top of her head quickly.

" You did fine" 3 reassured. Chandra nuzzled closer to him to which 3 placed his head atop of hers.

" Are you okay?" Selene's voice came from behind them, Chandra looked up and saw her sister in a terrible shape, her stern face was pale and full with sweat, her eyes were huge filled with worry and her whole leg was covered in blood, Chandra gasped at her and her eyes watered up even more, she ran towards her sister and gave her a hug, Selene rubbed her back and tried to smile her kind smile but her eyes were underlined with lines with worry. 3 looked at the sisters and looked confused, Chandra was acting like Selene and Selene looked like Chandra with her worried face, 13 and 14 came over towards their father and nodded to each other.

" Dad, were going to go back to our stitchpunk forms we need to conserve energy, the talismen is our power source but we can tell that it will be excelling energy quickly do to the fact that more machines are being made" 13 pointed out, 13 looked at 14 and they muttered something under their breaths, in front of 3's eyes they both got engulfed by a green glow and started to shrink into their stitchpunk forms, both of them mute ran around the city.

" By the way where's 7 at?" 9 asked from the silence, Selene looked at him and her stern face returned.

" She stayed to fight the fabrication machine, it spotted up as we looked for the source of the metal sound" Selene's memories took over her as she remembered the red eye, she bit her tongue and sat down on the ground, the blood was oozing out of her leg as she applied pressure on it. Chandra sat down beside her and examined it, she sighed a quick sigh and tried to laugh.

" 13, 14 can you look around for some bandages or anything like that please?" Chandra never had to look at them but could feel the flickers of their eyes making a shadow if her on the wall behind her and Selene, she smiled to herself as she loosely closed her eyes. When she looked up she saw Selene was staring at her arm with the weapon attached.

" What's that?" Selene even in her moment of being wounded, loved the thing attached to her arm.

" Oh 14 told me about how the talismen can morph items into other items, I placed the talismen on my arm and this weapon was formed" Chandra answered.

" That's awesome I should try that" Selene sounded back to her old self, it made Chandra smile bigger.

" That's a good idea why don't we use the talismen to heal you? It worked for me when Babydoll attacked us earlier today" Chandra had reached into her dress pocket which she had the talismen in, she also got to look at her favorite dress that was torn apart. She placed the talismen on Selene's arm and like her, Selene's arm turned green and was morphing into something. When the green smoke lifted Selene saw that her arm was similar to a knife, her face turning into a smile as she watched the blood seep back into her cut and then the cut healed over, she touched it briskly and stared at her sister astonished.

" It's amazing isn't it?" Chandra smiled to herself, she watched as 13 and 14 both wore angry looks when they came back with old, yellowed gauze to find that Selene was healed.

14 ran over to find and stared at Selene's morphed arm, she pointed towards the symbol that was itched into her skin, she stared up at Chandra hoping she could remember what it was.

" Oh that's Galita, the morphed cross" Chandra replied as Selene examined it closely. 14 nodded in approval.

" Oh thank goodness your alright!" Selene and Chandra turned around to see 7 coming up a pile of rubble, her canvas was all scratched and her arm that was not bearing her spear was hanging by a loose thread, Chandra literally screamed when she saw that 7's optic was also scratched as well. Chandra ran over and picked her up.

" What happened are you alright 7?" Chandra asked, 7 smiled kindly and tried to be comforting.

" I'm fine the machine got me a couple of times, I'm fine really"

Chandra groaned as she leaned down to take the gauze from 13 and 14, she loosely wrapped it around 7's body to protect her body from being more bent. Slowly she palced her in her dress pocket and turned towards the others.

' Alright let's go home and get some sleep before something else occurs"

" I second that" Selene raised her hand jokingly before standing up, they all started to walk towards their apartment, while Chandra had the chance she grabbed the loose mint green fabric that tore of her dress and placed it firmly around 7's body in the pocket.

" Sorry 7 but I'll feel better knowing your safe" Chandra explained.

" It's alright it's actually quite comfy" 7 replied.

At the apartment 3 and 4 went into their respective rooms and went to sleep, Chandra had let 9 go into the crack in the wall then placed 7 softly into the room as well, she removed the gauze and placed it on them as a blanket. Slowly she tip toed to check on Selene. Chandra walked towards the room only to find it was just 4 sleeping in the room, Chandra cocked her head to the side and turned around swiftly and found herself staring into the eyes of Selene.

" Hey there you are" Chandra smiled kindly, instead of a warm,kind smile Selene just stared at her.

" Hey Chandra do you have a minute? I want to tell you something about the machine"

The machine had been beat up pretty bad due to the fact that a potato sack person did this to him. The machine had looked around the city finding tracks of the broken buildings intil he came to the one just northeast of the library, there in the foundations was his perfect machine, the beautiful human corpse was once again a corpse. He picked her up and felt her heart, it was gone now and it was pointless to revive her if she was going to be defeated again, he squealed in anger as he carried the corpse back to his new home, he was going to make another machine, better then the first one.

Through the silent city the sound of drills was going off.

Hey hey hey! Yes finally chapter 10! To be honest this has to be one of my favorite chapters, don't ask why I just find this one more fun to write then the others.

1995penguin